Search Engine Optimization

Without visitors, your online business does not generate sales. Therefore, it is essential to determine and analyze the different sources of visitors (also known as "traffic"). Most online businesses receive traffic from the following channels: Search engines (especially Google), Affiliates (including price comparison sites), direct traffic and (to a lesser extent) through incoming links.
 

In the knowledge base, we will discuss all sources. On this page, we zoom in on the visitor source traffic from search engine. Within this source, we distinguish between unpaid (SEO) traffic and paid traffic (ergo Google Ads). The former will be discussed here:

What is SEO?

"SEO" is written in full; "Search Engine Optimization". In Google (dominant in the Netherlands with 97% penetration among Dutch users) you will find 2 search results: To the right and at the top of the page you will find the paid results that appear here thanks to the use of Google Ads. But these results are positioned around the "real" search results, also called the organic search results. With all the ads in Google these days, you'd almost forget but of course the search engine actually revolves around its core competency: Displaying the websites and online businesses that best match your search query.

Google evaluates your website in many ways to determine at which search results your site should appear high or low in the results. Books (and especially many sites and forums) have been written about this, but in the end, nobody knows exactly how Google's search technology algorithm works. However, many best practices have been developed and confirmed by Google. Applying this knowledge to your online business is called search engine optimization, or SEO.

Or as SEO specialist Edwords.co.uk defines it, "Search engine optimization (SEO) is the active optimization of a (mobile) website by improving internal and external factors (technology, content, authority) to increase visits to the (mobile) website or app on relevant keywords (keywords or key words) from search engines."

The basics of SEO

Simplified, we can say that SEO basically revolves around 3 elements:

  • A. Technique: Removing technical barriers so that an online store is better indexed by search engines.
  • B. Onpage optimization: Search engine-friendly layout of a website and the strategic processing of keywords.
  • C. Link building: acquiring relevant links to your online business so that it becomes popular and has a higher ranking than less popular competitors.

The fastest way to attract 'free' visitors through search engines through SEO is by creating valuable content (blogs, articles, video, infographics, podcasts etc) based on pre-selected keywords. (If you sell dog food, one such keyword could be 'Royal Canin'). The better you respond to the wants and needs of potential customers with your content, the more popular the online business becomes and the higher it appears in search results.

The basics of SEO can be mastered within a few days, but getting your online business into the top 3 for keywords with a lot of competition is something else. There are many (self-appointed) SEO specialists that you can hire for this purpose, there are plenty of good clubs among them, but also some charlatans, so be sure to study beforehand who you are going to work with. In all cases it seems smart to start by reading Google's own information with rules and tips to make your online business rise in search results.

Why is SEO important

Optimizing your online business for search engines is important for 2 reasons: First of all, visitors come in through normal search results "for free", i.e. you do not pay Google for this. And it is easier to earn margin from free visitors than from visitors who come in through paid channels. The second reason is that the majority of people in Google do not click on ads, but only on the search results. So that's where you want to be among them!

Two facts to back this up: 

Google research shows that 70% of users do not look beyond the first four search results for a given search query. If you are not in the top four for a search term relevant to your online business, you are missing out on a lot of visitors.

Furthermore, this same study showed that about 20% of Google users click on the Adwords ads above the search results, 10% on the ads in the right column and as many as 70% on the honest, non-paid search results.

Why is SEO important when buying/selling an online business?

The valuation of an online business is highly related to the profit it makes. The profit, in turn, is related to the sales that the online business generates, and those sales, in turn, follow from the visitor numbers and their quality. 

Visitors can enter online business through various channels. Many of these are paid, but those who enter your online business using relevant keywords (i.e. via search query 'Royal Canin' when you sell dog food) from search results are free. Whereas you will have to pay a part of the turnover to the source of those visitors, this is not the case for free visitors who clicked on your search result. In other words, your margin on these visitors is higher. And the larger the share of the "free" visitors of the total number of visitors the higher the profit percentage of your online business is. Of course, this in turn reflects 1 to 1 in the value of the online business.

A point to note

There is a lot of "experimentation" with SEO by the owners of online businesses. Google by no means appreciates all the ways used to rise in search results. Some have even been named as 'blackhat' techniques. (Buying links to your online business in order to manipulate search results, for example) Should Google determine that an online business is using these techniques, you can expect a penalty. In the worst case, Google will remove the entire online business from the search results and you will no longer be findable.

When buying an online business, pay close attention or have an expert determine that the previous owner did not try to inflate the value by applying unauthorized SEO techniques. In general, we recommend buying only online businesses with a solid and continuous history. Not only in terms of sales development, but certainly also in terms of SEO performance.

If desired, we can provide you with a scan, in which we fully review the Search Engine Optimization of your (new) online business for status and potential. (If it concerns a potential purchase, the cooperation of the current owner of the online business is required).